BEING ON DONKEY TIME

Italy’s beauty is indescribable or maybe I’m just too lazy to try. This part of Italy, Pistoia, is so different from other parts of Italy we’ve stayed in. The combination of mountains, forests, rocks, stupefying heights and greenery takes our breath away. Getting up to house is part of the adventure and does limit how much we go out.

The other night we were out to dinner with our guests, Chris and Nancy. When we started up the road, which winds up for a mile over the most uneven, rocky, craggy and terrifying terrain, I asked, quite innocently, had we reached the donkeys yet. The donkeys are the “sign” we’re close to home.

Something about that question ignited howls of laughter from Nancy, who had been holding onto the strap above her in the backseat for dear life. Her laughter was contagious and started me howling as well. We laughed all the way up the hill, past the donkeys and finally to the gate of the house, where we continued to roar.

It’s been a fairly layback time with Nancy and Chris. A visit to Lucca, which is a wonderful city, despite the fact every other building is a church, and a delicious dinner at a charming restaurant.

Today we spent the day on the beach at Viareggio on the Tyrrhenian Sea . The beach was virtually deserted. It’s Monday It must be packed on the weekends because hundreds of cabanas, umbrellas and lounge chairs fill the beach. In a way it felt like Santa Monica beach except for the height of the mountains in the background, some with sheer rock cliffs reaching to the sky.

We’re actually nearing the end of all this wonderfulness. We have about 3 weeks left in Europe and then we go back to the States to spend a week with friends in the Catskills. I can’t get my head around it. I simply can’t imagine just going back to life as usual and yet what’s the alternative? Move to Italy?! Not likely.

But I know I want to do whatever I have to do to make enough $$ to bring me here as often as possible. So I’m dedicating myself to commerce – writing, painting, I’d clean houses if I wasn’t so shitty at it!!

When I’m here not there, it is impossible to believe the world is anything but precious and beautiful. Food is all natural. You can’t buy anything that has a chemical in it which ruled out Jim’s Windex. Is it perfect? No. But it comes a helluva lot closer to what my vision of quality of life is than what is waiting home in America. It’s been a lesson to learn that convenience doesn’t equal quality of life. That’s where I and many Americans have been led astray.

The main wall entering LuccaPiece of remains of Roman wall that led to AmpitheatreRestaurant in Lucca. I think it was the first time we had dinner inside rather than on a terrace or in a garden or someplace outdoors.

Comments

You are 35 miles from a beautiful little village called Pietrasanta. It’s where Michaelangelo worked on his marble sculptures and is an artist community.
If you feel like taking a drive one day, I’d go for lunch and wander around. It’s not big. It’s also near Forte Di Marmi, which is on the sea. Beautiful.

You hit the nail on the head with the description of life in Pistoia. In our own small way here in Leelanau County many of the natural elements you described exist, sans the steep mountain sides. Natural earth to table food, beautiful beaches, 12 different denominations of churches in Suttons Bay. So you understand why it would break my heart to leave here, and why I will always find a way to return.